Transferring PC files to MacBook Pro with Lion OS via flash drive

Question

I have a flash drive with all the files from my old PC. How do I access / find this flash drive after it is installed, and can I save and use these files (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook primarily)?

Answer 1

Accessing Flash Drive

1. Plug the flash drive into your Mac.
2. Open a Finder window. (Double click any folder on your desktop, or click the blue face in the Dock.)
3. Move your mouse over the sidebar on the left-hand side of the Finder window, then place two fingers on the trackpad, and scroll down until you see your flash drive.
4. Click on your flash drive.
5. Open a new Finder window by pressing Command-N.
6. Find the files you want to copy from your flash drive, and drag them to where you want them copied in the second window.

Using Files

You have a number of options here:

• You can get Microsoft Office for Mac, which will enable you to open, edit and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

• If you prefer something cheaper, there is free open source project called Libre Office, which will let you open, edit and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Unfortunately there are a few features of Word and PowerPoint that it can't handle, but for most basic documents it should suffice.

• If you want a solution that is free, and 100% compatible, you can try Microsoft's new SkyDrive service. It gives you free access to an online version of Office, and you can export Documents to PDF if you want to print them.

• If you just want to quickly preview documents, and don't mind the formatting being a bit dodgy, you can use QuickLook, by single-clicking on the file in Finder, then pressing Spacebar You can also double-click them, and open them in Preview.

Answer 2

I'm going to assume you are talking about finding it in Terminal and not Finder as you asked about access /.

Try

    cd /Volumes/nameOfFlashDrive

That will put you in the / directory of the flash drive. If you don't know the name of the flash drive.

    cd /Volumes

Then do a ls. Your flash drive should be listed. You could also find the name of the flash drive listed in Finder.